


Unstoppable

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, Villain joins the team against a bigger villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:54:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23035831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Set some time after the movie.Great danger threatens the world. Doesn’t really matter who or what it is- maybe some old demons have awakened, or older spirits want their revenge, anything. The thing is that the Boogeyman and the Guardians have to join their forces to defeat a greater foe, and nobody is happy about it. Their teamwork is lacking, mostly because of Pitch, but the Guardians know they need his help. This temporary alliance doesn’t change anything and they still hate his guts and vice versa.But after few battles and some time together the Guardians start to notice things about Pitch. Things like he never sleeps, broods alot, he’s way too skinny. He sometimes is reckless in battle and takes on more opponents then he can fight off (like he did in the movie), doesn’t care about is injuries, or about himself all that much. He is still the same Pitch, with all the sass and dissing everybody, it’s just that sometimes they can see cracks in his attitude...[cut for length]"Pitch saves the Guardians from a Walker (what the hell is a Walker? I don’t know. Some nasty thing from another dimension. It doesn’t matter) but this isn’t unequivocally good. Sandy talks to him about it.
Relationships: Pitch Black/Sanderson Mansnoozie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26
Collections: Blacksand Short Fics





	Unstoppable

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 6/15/2013.
> 
> Here's the rest of the prompt: "Signs of emotional desolation, of depression. All he’s ever received is emotional negativity, hate and neglect. The concept of kindness and selflessness is completely foreign to him and wouldn’t even know how to respond to it, because everybody treats him as an evil you have to push away. But since that is all he’s ever known he doesn’t cry or make a fuss about it, for him it’s just a fact of life. But accepting his situation doesn’t make the sadness and loneliness go away.
> 
> Whether somebody tires to reach out to Pitch is up to anon author. I’d just like the Guardians to realize what the problem with Pitch really is.   
> I can be fluf, sad, anything goes!
> 
> TL;DR: omg PITCH FEELS"

“You all saw it,” Toothiana says quietly to the other Guardians. “If Pitch hadn’t made that last charge, that Walker would have forced us to abandon all of Antarctica. Thousands more would be coming through the portal right now. He bought us time and, I think, probably saved our lives. Those things are far worse than we thought.”

Bunny frowns. “Yeah, he drove it off, but it was still a bloody stupid thing to do. He didn’t give any of us even the slightest warning before rushing in headlong, and if it hadn’t been for Sandy risking himself to retrieve him—and it’ll be a cold day in hell before I understand <i>that</i>—he would have been killed by its retreat. Our forces were almost down by one, and then two, just because he decided he had to go it alone. We can’t afford to lose anybody! That would have been worse than more Walkers coming through—which they still will do. I mean, why does Pitch think we’re tolerating him anyway? It’s only because of the absolute necessity!”

“Maybe…maybe he decided to go it alone because he’s always he’s always had to go it alone before.”

Bunny’s frown softens slightly at Jack’s statement. “Maybe. But I still think it’s important to remember that we don’t have Antarctica for a few more days because Pitch was a hero. We won that battle because of what Pitch did, but what Pitch did was act in blatant disregard for his own life and the ultimate fate of the world. Even though he’s not fighting against us, his behavior could still lead to our defeat. He’s still dangerous.”

“We knew working with Pitch would be big problem from the start,” North says. “This is not too big surprise. Right now though I think we all should rest from battle while we can. Maybe problem will seem simpler in morning.”

The others nod, except for Sandy, who tells them he’ll be in the infirmary with Pitch.

“Yetis are taking care of him,” North objects.

Sandy tilts his head skeptically. It’ll take him decades to recover that way. I’ll be fine.

* * *

“Hello, old man,” Pitch says from the bed when Sandy walks in. His eyes are almost closed, and it seems difficult for him to speak above a whisper. The blanket hangs oddly over his left side, shifting slightly. It was there that the Walker had ripped out a large chunk of his more humanlike flesh. Now, his shadows fill the gap and take on the functions of what is gone, but they ape solidity only poorly.

Careful with the nicknames. They’ll start to gossip about us.

Pitch’s dry laugh turns into a cough. “So you’re saying destroying your reputation would work? After all, destroying your body didn’t.” He sighs. “But it almost looks like it will have done for me.”

You won’t die.

“And that’ll be a problem for you after all this is over, won’t it?” Pitch smirks at Sandy, whose expression is puzzled. “You know…they say once you save someone’s life you’re responsible for them. I don’t think you’ll enjoy being responsible for me.”

But it goes both ways, Sandy signs. You saved all our lives today. So you’re responsible for all of us.

“How ghastly. Anyway, I could hear the conversation outside the infirmary door.”

Sorry.

“Sorry?” Pitch throws Sandy a strange look. “I didn’t expect any different. I know how much everyone wants things to go back to normal. I know how much it must have stuck in your craw to be the one who had to save me. I wasn’t trying to put you in danger that time, though. I was just fighting the Walker.”

Didn’t ‘stick in my craw’ to save you. You were brave and you saved us. Thank you.

“Are you feeling quite well?”

Better than you, I guarantee it. Pitch…I know it’s been difficult, working with us. And I want you to tell me—honestly—why you didn’t ask for help against the Walker today.

Pitch stares at Sandy. He’d like to make some sort of joke answer, but Sandy’s calm, focused expression tells him that this isn’t the time. Anyway, he’s too tired. “I didn’t ask for help because there wasn’t time. This whole time we’ve been on the same side, when I have asked for help, it hasn’t been given right away. The rest of you help each other almost by instinct. I have to beg. I don’t like begging, and it takes time. I think it would have killed Jack and Tooth if I hadn’t done what I did, but we’ll never know now.”

Every choice you make is wrong.

“Yes, Bunny’s made that quite clear; thank you for showing me the opinion is universal.”

Pitch. Look at me. I don’t think that. But that’s what you’re up against. I say you did a good thing. Not the best thing, but a good thing.

“Really. What would have been the best?”

Asking me to help you. Can’t go back in time, but when we face the Walkers again…you won’t have to beg.

“What are you playing at?”

I’m telling the truth. We’ve known each other for a long time, Pitch. It hasn’t always been bad. I would have saved you from the Walker today even if MiM hadn’t told us we needed you to finally defeat them. Not done saving you yet though.

“You think I’m going to recklessly endanger myself again?”

Maybe. But you’ve been facing worse things than Walkers for a long time. You didn’t care if you lived or died today, did you?

Pitch shifts his gaze to the ceiling. “No. No one wants me to live because of who I am.”

Sandy floats above him, sitting cross-legged in the air. Well. Now I do. Because you can be brave and self-sacrificing. Because you probably can comprehend the Walkers better than any of us and still faced them.

“That’s not who I am.”

It’s part of who you are. Sandy smiles. So I’ve got your back in battle from now on.

Pitch scoffs. “And here you said the nicknames were going to start them gossiping about us.”

Music notes appear around the next set of Sandy’s signs. _Let’s give ‘em something to talk about._

“You worry me sometimes. Well, in the interest of fairness, I’ll try to have your back in battle as well, but I don’t think I’ll be fit for anything for a long time.”

Where do you hurt? Think before answering.

“Everywhere, Sandy, where do you think? Actually—it hurts the worst along the edge between flesh and shadow. Then the rest of my body is in sort of a dull pain. The shadow actually feels normal, though it doesn’t look it.”

Embrace it.

“I don’t understand.”

You don’t need your gray-skinned self. Remember who you were. Watch.

Pitch looks on in amazement as Sandy’s own humanlike form is burned away, leaving behind the brilliant being of light that Sandy truly is.

He turns his blazing gaze to Pitch once again. Remember. Remember the balance. Be shadow to my light.

“Is that how this works?”

Quit stalling and don’t be a smart-ass.

“Well I guess that is still really you.” Pitch takes a deep breath and, as he exhales, he freely relinquishes his physical form and all the pain it has brought him. He feels it leaving him, feels the rush of shadows playing along what he thinks of as his limbs, and soon he finds himself standing ten feet tall next to the infirmary bed. “More than nightmares,” is all he can say.

Sandy smiles at him again. You see why I wanted you to do this? He laughs silently. The Walkers think they have access to planes beyond our comprehension. They couldn’t even see who we really were when they started fighting us.

“I think I’ll like fighting alongside you like this.” Pitch says, in a whispery voice that now sounds as though it’s meant to be that way. “I think we’ll be unstoppable. I’ve never been that before,” he finishes wryly. “But what will happen when it’s over? No one will want me free like this.”

Let me work on that, Sandy signs. We might not have to oppose each other. I think the others might be willing to step back and let us negotiate this ourselves.

Pitch’s laugh is like dry leaves on hard ground.

Now. Want to see how Jack Frost reacts to us?

“Oh yes.”

And Sandy is so, so glad to see that disturbingly wide grin under a dozen golden eyes once again.


End file.
